Dictionary of Polling: The Language of Contemporary Opinion Research

BACKGROUNDING Researching a topic or issue before drafting a
questionnaire. Backgrounding provides baseline information about a particular
problem area, what resources are available, and what issues are unresolved
( Backstrom and
Hursh-Cesar, 1981:27-28).

Survey researchers use three important sources of background information.
One is the questions developed by other survey organizations working in the
same area. Using or adapting earlier questions is considered good practice in
opinion research. It allows different surveys to be compared and it promotes
improvement in survey methods ( Crespi, 1989:97-98).

Another source of backgrounding information is the literature-the books,
articles, monographs, reports, government documents and other records that deal
with the subject of interest. A third backgrounding source is the expert. This
may be a subject matter specialist, or it may be a pollster who has previously
done research in the area. Backgrounding builds new research upon the
accumulated findings of earlier research. In even more practical terms, it saves
researchers from duplicating work already done. See alsoINSTRUMENT.

BACK TRANSLATION A sophisticated technique for translating poll
questions from one language to another--for example, from English to Spanish.
Back translation aims for linguistic equivalency--finding words in the second
language that have the same meaning as the words used in the first language.
The back translation procedure requires the skills of three bilingual translators.
Translator one works from language A to language B; then translator two works
from language B back to A; then translator three works from language A back
to B, removing discrepancies in meaning that crop up during successive
translations ( Warwick and
Lininger, 1975:166).

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